Collaborative Test Design

Collaborative user story writing, review discussions, pair testing, crowd testing, … Testers are working more and more with others to achieve higher levels of quality for the products they help deliver, yet there is one activity in the test process that testers keep doing alone.

Whether you are determining your equivalence classes, setting up your decision tables or struggling with n-switch coverage for your state transition diagram, typically it is just you by yourself trying to uncover the required test cases for an item under test. Even if you are part of a team of testers, you still split up the work, each tester being responsible for his or her assigned part of functionality. You might review or execute your colleagues’ work, yet that is not considered real collaboration.

Everybody knows that when people work together, the sum is often greater than its parts, so why do we keep designing tests all alone? Traditional test design techniques seem to be created for solo application, so where to find the tunes to sing a different song?

In this workshop, we want to answer the question on how to design great tests together with your peers. Different techniques will be presented and more important, also applied, so you can experience yourself how well each new technique suits your needs. Since cooperation does not come out of a can from a vending machine, we will not only focus on the results, but also on setting the required context for collaborative test design. All by doing and experiencing yourselves!

What are you waiting for? Now is your chance to expand your test design tool case(s) with techniques that you can practice with the whole team. Let’s make testing even more fun!

Prerequisites for participants:

• Basic understanding of a test case structure

Bio:

Breaking the system, helping to rebuild it, and providing advice and guidance on how to avoid problems. That’s me in a nutshell. With over 20 years of experience in test consultancy in a variety of environments, I have seen the best (and worst) in software development. In my current role as Learning & Development Manager, I’m responsible for guiding our consultants, partners, and customers on their personal and professional path towards excellence. I’m chair of the ISTQB Advanced workgroup, author and international keynote speaker